Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Ok, it's official, we are a grown up building now that we have industry inside us requiring a chimney and hand railings installed on the outside stairs. Ooo, and signage in the parking lot.

I guess it's more that we are official now.

Greg and I agonized for weeks about whether we should go the blacksmith route and have decorative handrails made, but the expense was a bit too much to justify right now. We went back and forth about this until we decided to save money now and have our favorite local machine shop, Doak's, just make plain and functional handrails.....they are perfect for their purpose. At some point down the road, we may wish to make more of a statement, but right now, there are so many things to finish...
I really like these handrails.

More great news is that the pizza oven arrived and was hooked up with the chimney a day later. I was a bit nervous about where the chimney was going to end up. I gave my pretty strong opinion of how I wanted it to go and it came out better than I asked. I wanted to make sure that if the chimney could come out through the molding on the side of the building, we would have a better time patching it down the road if the chimney ever got taken out or replaced. I like the way it snugs up to the corner of the building.

Greg has been working on the apartment a bit, starting in the bathrooms. I have a bit more "other work" to get done and then I need to change gears and get this place done. Onward!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

A year ago today, this is where we were with renovations at the Ocean House. We did a lot of work in a year! This is now the beautiful first floor space where Brambles is located. Note that we had not even put new windows at this point!

Yesterday marked the first day that the building is fully heated, and none too soon since it was 9 degrees when I woke up yesterday. I had the pleasure of going down to the building to make sure the heat pumps were working. One of the things I kept reading about before we put these heat pumps in was that as the temperature lowers, the efficiently of the heat pump gets less. I was so happy to see that all the spaces in the building were cozy and warm. What I LOVE though is that the heat is moist. I am experimenting with the heat in the apartment, where there are six heating units. With only two units going last month, the bill was around 100.00 for heating 2400 square feet. I am hopeful that with more units, the bill might actually lower, since (in my mind) the compressor will work less with more units working. We'll see. I have our winterized cottage heat set around 50 degrees and the bill comes to about 120 a month for propane to heat a space half the size of the apartment.....color me impressed!

In other news, the buildout of the lower level space is coming along very nicely. The tenants are doing a really nice job making a welcoming space for their restaurant. One hardly recognizes the interior anymore. Hard to believe that this is what that space looked like a year ago: Oh wait, there wasn't a space there a year ago, I can still see through the building at this point.

Greg and I are headed out of town for a few weeks, our first vacation in about two years. Work resumes on the apartment when we return, all tanned and rested.

Happy 2015 everyone, may the New Year bring a finished Ocean House and prosperity to everyone!

A bit about us

Welcome to Slum and Blight: This is a project blog, documenting our work on an old building that my spouse Greg and I bought each other for our wedding present. The city where we live declared our neighborhood "Slum and Blight" in order to qualify for government funds to help fix up this downtown area. We like to think of our building as the gateway to Slum and Blight. Sit back, relax and scroll through my entries about the work we are doing.